Let’s call it the Great Lego Debacle shall we? A few years ago my son began his obsession with Lego. He pored over the Lego Magazine. Looked in the Toys R Us catalog looking at Lego kit after Lego kit. He received kits for his birthday and for Christmas and just because. He out together small kits and large kits and medium sized kits. Whatever he got his hands on he finished in record time. So where’s the problem you might ask? Well, whenever he finished a Lego kit he would place it on the floor or on the coffee table or even balance a finished Lego on top of another toy. The family room floor was more Lego than carpet.
One day the Lego kits were on the floor. Placed side by side. Not exactly neatly, but near enough. He was proud of all his hard work. So was I. But before long he had stepped on part of a Lego police station and a part of it broke of. I banged in to the Lego castle knocking off the turret. I tried to put the turret back on and damaged the structure even more. I stopped so as not to break the entire thing. Soon the unfinished Star Wars ship melded with the partially completed Prince of Persia Lego. Every time I vacuumed the family room I moved toys, games, and Lego to .
What we were left with was a pile of completed, partially completed, and miscellaneous bricks. It was a mess. A few months ago, I attempted to finish the Lego police station. What a disaster! I forgot the row of doors. A wall was off kilter. My son was not impressed. He took the project over, but then gave up when he couldn’t find some teeny black piece with a hook on the end. I tried to find it but gave up as well.
There was no other course of action, but to sort the Lego. I spent one morning while the kids were at school, sorting the Lego by color. Fortunately I have an abundance of Rubbermaid tubs. Red, green, yellow, blue, gray, black, white, and even an array of brown and beige bricks were housed in tubs. My intention was to take a weekend and build each of the Lego kits from scratch or using whatever partially completed pieces. That “weekend with nothing going on” never materialized.
I was sick. The kids were busy with end-of-the-school year activities. I did something to my knee. Summer began. My daughter was sick. The kids were on swim team. I was still having problems with my knee. Our weekends were full of activities. Busy, busy, busy! No time for spending hours building Lego that is for sure. But then my orthopedist told me I needed knee surgery at the end of August. Wowza. That was unexpected.
With knee surgery on the horizon, I became obsessed with cleaning, decluttering, purging, organizing, and getting my house in order. I knew that once I had surgery I would be good for nothing. I sorted books, toys, games, and DVDs. I put away treasured keepsakes. I mopped floors. I vacuumed. I probably vacuumed a few Lego pieces. Ahem! I donated. I consigned. I yard sale-d.
By the time my surgery rolled around, the house was looking a bit better. Still quite cluttered, but at least the piles were getting smaller. I also had a bit of extra $$ from selling our old stuff. You know what they say about one man’s trash being another man’s treasure.
After my knee surgery, I spent 3 days lying on the recliner, watching the entire first season of House of Cards and Orange is the New Black and movie after movie after movie. Once I perked up a bit and was less tired, I started tackling the Lego castle. I went by the book…that is I got the Lego instruction booklet for the castle and built it from scratch. Boy was it challenging. Do you know how many different gray pieces go in to the castle. I had a tray of bricks, fasteners, hooks, rods, and all manner of Lego pieces. I did about an 1/8 one night before giving up. My son came down the next morning, took one look at the castle, and said he would finish it, and you know what he did!
That Lego Kingdoms Castle kit came with 8 bags of Lego. Four of the bags were used to make the partial castle that was then bashed and lost a few pieces here and there. My son did a great job re-assembling it and then added bags 5-8 to complete the castle. Meanwhile, I constructed the Harry Potter Weasley house, a Prince of Persia set, and a couple of Star Wars ships. As of yesterday, we had assembled or re-assembled about 25 small or large Lego kits. I have bagged them. A few of them are missing very, very specialized pieces. I fear that I have either vacuumed them or the pieces were used in another kit in place of another piece. But by hook or by crook, my son and I have completed many Lego kits and had fun in the process.
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